


Past Mistakes

by Scylla87



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Cleaning Up Messes, Friendship, Gen, particle accelerator explosion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 18:10:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17709080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scylla87/pseuds/Scylla87
Summary: After the Particle Accelerator Explosion, Caitlin is tasked with trying to convince the family of Barry Allen to allow them to move him to Star Labs while he's in a coma.





	Past Mistakes

Past Mistakes:

It was chaos, both inside and outside of Caitlin’s mind. The hospital was a madhouse, people running everywhere, trying to unite with loved ones. All these people whose lives had been changed because of her, because of what they had done. They all had someone who was looking for them, caring if they were okay or not. How lucky they were. All Caitlin had was her mother. Was her mother trying to get a hold of her? It didn’t seem likely. They had never had the warmest of relationships, and her decision to go work for Star Labs had only made things worse. No, she was alone, forced to deal with her guilt for her part in this tragedy alone.

 

Caitlin looked around the crowded waiting room and tried to make sense of the things that she knew. The particle accelerator had malfunctioned somehow, despite all their careful calculations. Wells was paralyzed. People were injured. People were dead. Ronnie was dead. They had been planning a life together, and now all of that was over. But now wasn’t the time to worry about that. She had come here for a reason, and she couldn’t go home until she had completed the task she had been sent on. One more time she approached the desk and opened her mouth to speak. The nurse on the other side was ready for her. “For the last time, visitation is for family only.”

 

They had been playing this game for hours, ever since Caitlin had arrived. “I’m not here for visitation,” she repeated, again. “I am here in a professional capacity. I’m a doctor.”

 

The nurse did not look impressed. “And I’m the Queen of England. No visitation in ICU unless you are family. Are you and Mr. Allen family?”

 

“No,” Caitlin admitted. In fact, she had never even met Bartholomew Allen before. “Like I said, I am here to see Mr. Allen’s family, to discuss possible treatment for him.”

 

The nurse bristled at that. This time when she spoke her voice was a little too loud, sure to carry to the rest of the people waiting. “Don’t you think that Star Labs has done enough?” she asked. “You already put that man in a coma. Not to mention all the other people that your little experiment hurt.”

 

Caitlin didn’t need to be reminded of all the bad that had come out of the particle accelerator malfunctioning. Hadn’t she lost someone herself? As of that point, seventeen people were dead, countless injured. “We just want to help,” she said. “The hospital is overrun, and from what we can see, this particular patient is causing problems. We just want to talk to the family, see if they will let us move him to Star Labs.”

 

The nurse glared at her over the top of her glasses but was stopped from responding by the arrival of Cisco Ramon. “Hello, Betty,” he said, always much smoother than Caitlin. “How are you doing today?”

 

The nurse raised an eyebrow but let the mild flirting go. “I was just telling your friend here that I cannot let you in to see a patient in the ICU without the permission of the family.”

 

Cisco leaned against the desk and smiled. “But you can get us in contact with the family, right?”

 

Reluctantly, the nurse nodded. “I will tell them you were asking about him, but that is the best that I can do.”

 

“Thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver Betty,” Cisco said as he backed away.

 

Caitlin had trouble not rolling her eyes as she followed him. “Why’d you have to interrupt?” she snapped at him once they were out of earshot. “I was handling it.”

 

“No, you were getting handled. She was never going to let you into that room, at least this way she’ll pass along our message to the family. Dr. Wells will do the rest.”

 

Personally, she thought that Harrison Wells had done enough damage, but she couldn’t say that to Cisco. “You didn’t have to come with me,” she said. “I know that your family is worried about you.”

 

He nodded. “And I’m worried about you. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be alone now.”

 

Caitlin wanted to argue that she was fine, but for some reason the words would not come. Privately, she was glad that Cisco had decided to tag along. Being alone didn’t seem like a good idea at all.  Every time she was alone memories of Ronnie snuck in. “Thanks for your help,” she said instead of all the things she wished that she could say. “Do you think the family will agree to let us move him?”

 

Cisco turned back to look at her. “Always with the mission,” he said with a smile. “You know why Wells wants us to get this guy moved?”

 

She shook her head. All their boss had said was that he wanted to do some good in the aftermath of all the tragedy they had caused. “Just making up for past mistakes,” she supplied.

 

Her friend nodded. “We couldn’t have known what would happen when we turned it on.”

 

That was what she wanted to believe, but everybody had lost so much that it was hard to let any of them off the hook. People were dead. Ronnie was dead. How was she ever going to let herself off the hook for that?


End file.
